A damning whistleblower complaint details the ‘tragic’ blunders of Jared Kushner’s coronavirus task force: report

The phrase “coronavirus task force” is usually used in connection with the group that is headed by Vice President Mike Pence and includes medical experts such as Dr. Deborah Birx and immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci. But a separate task force, headed by White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, has used private-sector companies for coronavirus-related efforts — and according to a whistleblower complaint, things are not going well.

The whistleblower, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Ashley Parker report in the Washington Post, was a former volunteer for Kushner’s task force. And the complaint, which was filed with the House Oversight Committee in April, alleges that Kushner is using cronies who lack experience and expertise.

In the complaint, the whistleblower asserted, “Americans are facing a crisis of tragic proportions, and there is an urgent need for an effective, efficient and bold response. From my few weeks as a volunteer, I believe we are falling short. I am writing to alert my representatives of these challenges and to ask that they do everything possible to help frontline health care workers and other Americans in need.”

According to the whistleblower’s complaint, members of the task force were told to prioritize requests from well-known Fox News hosts such as Jeanine Pirro and Brian Kilmeade — and that desperately needed equipment has not been delivered.

Abutaleb and Parker report, “Even as the volunteer group struggled to procure protective equipment, about 30% of ‘key supplies,’ including masks, in the national stockpile of emergency medical equipment went toward standing up a separate Kushner-led effort to establish drive-through testing sites nationwide, according to a March internal planning document obtained by The Post and confirmed by one current and one former administration official. Kushner had originally promised thousands of testing sites, but only 78 materialized; the stockpile was used to supply 44 of those over five to 10 days, the document said.”